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The final AJ of the year looks back at the past 12 months and forward to the year ahead. We review 2018’s key architectural events and trends and preview the stories set to dominate the new year. We also pick out the people to watch in 2019 and highlight eight key buildings set to complete. And to make sure you’ve been paying attention, there’s a Christmas quiz on the events that shook the architectural world in 2018 and a chance to play spot the building. PLUS a building study of Karakusevic ..

First look: 7/7 memorial, Hyde Park

This memorial for the 52 victims of the 7 July bombings will be unveiled in Hyde Park today by Prince Charles on the fourth anniversary of the attacks

Carmody Groarke has collaborated with the families of the 52 victims over the last two years, to produce a ‘dignified and tranquil space’. Anthony Gormley, who designed the Angel of the North, was a consultant on the project.

The construction sits in the south-east corner of the park, and consists of 52 roughly textured stainless steel pillars, one for each victim. The pillars are grouped together in bunches of six, seven, 13 and 26 to symbolise the lives lost in the four attacks.

Each of these columns - known as stele from the Greek word for an inscribed memorial stone - is inscribed with the date, location and time of the attack. A plaque on a nearby embankment will hold the names of all the victims.

Andrew Groarke said on the project, ‘there are 52 individual lives being remembered and there is also the sense of radiating collective loss across London and beyond.’

The ceremony on Tuesday (7 July) will be attended by several survivors of the attacks, relatives of the victims, representatives of the emergency services and government ministers. After plans to site the tribute in Tavistock Square, scene of one of the attacks, Hyde Park was selected due to its ‘prominence, history and central location.’

Roger Scruton, chair of the government’s new Building Better, Building Beautiful commission , has attacked contemporary architecture in a provocative speech calling for a return to traditional design based on the Classical orders

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